Peer Pressure Affects Teen Educational Decisions

Peer pressure.  Typically it is blamed for bad behavior.  It’s the reason teenagers do things that they really didn’t want to do: it wasn’t their idea - everybody was doing it!

But is peer pressure only an excuse for bad decisions?  There is study that suggests peer pressure effects important education decisions as well.

I am interested in this peer pressure study because it relates to how teens make decisions about education.  The opportunity for financial success is tied to the decisions students make about their education after high school.  The Harvard Graduate School of Education found that by 2018, 33 percent of the workforce will need at least a college degree and 66 percent need technical skills, credentials or an associate degree.  Only one percent will find a job with no training required.

Leonardo Burszryn of UCLA and Robert Jensen of Wharton wanted to find out what factors influenced the decisions of 11th grade students to accept or decline the opportunity to sign up for free SAT prep courses.  You might think that it is parents or teachers who most influence these decisions or the careers these students are considering.

Instead, the researchers discovered that the controlling factor was whether or not their decisions were going to be made public to their peers.

Forms to sign-up for the free courses were provided to students in honor and non-honor classes.  The forms randomly included different instructions.  Some indicated that the students’ choices would remain confidential.  Some forms, however, noted their choices would be made known to other students in the class.

There was no other consultation available.  Students were required to fill out the form and return them during the same class period. 

In the non-honors classes 72 percent of students signed up for the extra study when they were told their decisions would remain confidential.  That dropped to 61 percent when students were told that their classmates would learn about their decisions - an 11 percent drop because their peers would discover they wanted SAT study assistance.

As one might expect, students in honors classes were more likely to sign up for the classes.  There was little difference based on whether the decision was public or private - 93 percent versus 92 percent.

But when the same students who had been offered the study in their honors class were offered the same extra study in their non-honor class, their decisions changed.  When they were in their honors classes there was a higher rate of signing up when they knew their colleagues would learn their choices - 25 percent more signed up.

When they returned to their non-honors classes, however, their decisions about signing up for the SAT assistance changed.   Students who were told their decision were confidential signed up 79 percent of the time. That dropped to 54 percent when told their decisions would be made public to their non-honor classmates.  Same students, same question, but different answers depending on what they perceived as the norm for their peer group at the time.

This is just one study but it speaks volumes about how important positive reinforcement is to teenagers when their make decisions about their education.  And it reminds us that the positive reinforcement from parents and teachers alone - while necessary - isn’t always sufficient.